17 September 2008

Obama and McCain Unqualified to be CEO?

Carly Fiorina, former CEO of an $80 billion company, said that the presidential and vice presidential candidates competing to run a $3 trillion federal budget would not be qualified to be CEO. (Curiously, the market seems to have had a similar opinion about Fiorina. During her tenure, HP’s market value dropped in half. After she left in 2005, the stock rose by 224%)

My initial reaction to this was scorn for Fiorina. Here, I thought, is another CEO who actually believes her own compensation package. But then I woke up this morning to news of the bailout of AIG – something that will cost taxpayers $85 billion. It is true, I thought. Any president who could nod his head at that kind of a bill would not be able to run an $80 billion a year company.